Promise of Souls
by Aiko Isari
Summary: A Traditionalist story. At the age of seventeen, Taiki is set to take on the trials of the family name. Unfortunately, no one really wants him to. Unlucky for them, Taiki doesn't exactly care. He has dealt with unruly Digimon before, and by gosh will he do something similar again. Except this time, it's British children.


_warning for implied homophobia and a whole lot of clan nonsense._

* * *

1.

Being the heir to a bloodline has never been considerably easy for anyone.

Being me, I've come to realize that it might possibly be worse.

Now, uh, let me preface this by saying that I love my family. Mom, dear old dad, the grandfather who insists on calling me ''Mikey' for some weird reason, and all my cousins who lived through the Second Wizarding War (which is a very extreme name, the history really makes it sound like a violent, almost successful coup-de-etat, and most countries outside of the United Kingdom kind of left it alone. Not that that denies their trauma, just wars are in general a lot more so than this, in a way.) and have so many issues that I probably don't understand. I love them and their quirky, weird sort of… ideas. Can't say I understand them all of the time, but I like the people just fine.

Just, sometimes, they don't like me.

Mom doesn't care much, and dad's a gravestone ghost so he kind of can't, but I've had a couple uncles just look at me funny. Yeah that's the only way I can describe it. Not a person of words, nope. I always assume it's because of my magic, because a lot of European wizards rely on wands. Many people do not. (check Africa for example).

When I ask though, I get a response that makes me think of Kiriha.

"You're too nice, Taiki."

Hah.

They make it sound like caring is a bad thing.

* * *

"So wait… they _won't_ let you do it?" Kiriha raised an eyebrow. "How many teenagers are in your family?"

I shot Kiriha a look of annoyance and he laughed, shaking the speaker on his side of the call. He teetered back in his chair and waited.

I felt my eye twitch. "...I have a lot of cousins," I finally conceded, and he smirked. "But they're the ones who insist 'he who inherits the Kudo family secrets be of high magical power and an affinity to the healing arts'. Half my cousins still cause explosions!"

Kiriha laughed again. "My brothers set the kitchen on fire by trying to catch lightning, so my family can't talk. " He settled his chair down, thank god, and leveled me with a squint. "Is it because you're gay?"

I choked. "No!"

Kiriha raised an eyebrow. "And you know that how?"

"Because they took one look at him and asked him for tips on how to stab me with his fingers." I rubbed my abdomen with a small grimace. It still twinged during storms but that was fine.

Kiriha scoffed. "I'd ask that if I still didn't want to strangle him."

"Do it and I flood your sinuses until they bleed."

He scowled and I couldn't help but grin. "You would use salt water too, wouldn't you?"

"Always."

I would wonder why we were friends considering how we get along when no one was looking, but then I remembered he believed I would survive a blast to the heart and I trusted him to not kill me at the whims of a psychopathic general. So strange circumstances make strange bedfellows.

"I don't know," he finally said, mulling it over again. "Maybe your grandfather doesn't trust an eighteen year old to take the reins."

I shook my head. "He took over when he was _fourteen."_

"Exactly, he's learned."

I sighed. "Well, he needs to learn something else before he dies and we have an Inheritance War on our hands."

And no one wanted to be the next Mildred Le Fay. I hoped that was true anyway.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ Remiiiiiiiiii~ I did it. Just what she wants, more Traditionalist. Hopefully. This thing is so disjointed despite apparently following a timeline? Apparently? I have no idea. I'm literally running with this verse until it shuts up. It's like In Prayer, more plot just shows up. Anyway. This one focuses on Taiki, again, because I need to torture the poor boy in a nice way this time. So, yeah. Please leave a review! I know you guys are there. I know you're watching. Do it for Ryouma. He knows I have a fic waiting in the wings just for his scrawny backside.

 **Challenges:** One Ship Boot Camp prompt 36, graduate, Slots Challenge (AMF), crossover boot camp, Advent Caledar 2014 day 3, and Diversity writing I20. Also for the Update the Old Stuff Bingo and Mixing Bag of Challenge Prompts bingo. Hooray!


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